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Omar Mateen’s past was a sinister prelude to the deadliest mass shooting in the history of a country that’s grown wanton with such slaughter.

Reports from relatives, police and acquaintances paint an ugly picture of the troubled man, who took the lives of at least 50 people and injured 53 others when he opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando on Sunday morning.

Mateen, 29, was killed during a shootout with police — who soon labelled the Pulse club killings a suspected act of Islamic terrorism.

A U.S. citizen who reportedly worked in security at a facility for juvenile delinquents, Mateen was said to have declared his allegiance to ISIS — also known as Daesh — during a 911 call to police in the midst of the murders.

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He had a licence to own firearms and reportedly purchased a Glock handgun and an AR-15 rifle in the days before the shooting, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said.

An FBI agent said at a news conference that the killer had been on the agency’s terrorism radar as long as three years ago. The first time he drew attention, in 2013, it was for “making comments to co-workers alleging familial ties and other possible terrorist ties,” Special Agent Matthew Bertron said.

Special Agent Ron Hopper told the Guardian newspaper the bureau thoroughly investigated the matter, including interviews of witnesses, physical surveillance and records checks.

“In the course of the investigation, Mateen was interviewed twice. Ultimately we were unable to verify the substance of his comments, and the investigation was closed,” Hopper said.

Mateen was investigated again in 2014 while attending the same mosque as Moner Abusalha, an American believed to have carried out a suicide bomb attack in Syria, the FBI said.

Investigators determined Mateen’s contact with Abusalha was “minimal and did not constitute a substantial relationship or threat at that time,” Bertron said.

In a Sunday interview with NBC News, Mateen’s father, Seddique Mateen, said his son had expressed rage against homosexuals after seeing two men kissing in Miami several months ago.

The senior Mateen said he doubted his son had religious motivations, adding that homophobia was a more likely impetus for the killings.

“We are saying we are apologizing for the whole incident,” the father told NBC. “We weren’t aware of any action he is taking. We are in shock like the whole country.”

But in a bizarre twist, the Washington Post reports that the senior Mateen — who was also identified as Mir Seddique — hosted a television show where he expressed support for the Afghan Taliban. In one posted video, he also appears to portray himself as the president of Afghanistan, the Post reported.

The paper said the father hosted the “Durand Jirga Show” on a channel called Payam-e-Afghan, which broadcasts from California.

In it, the elder Mateen speaks in the Dari language on a variety of political subjects. Dozens of videos are posted on a channel under Seddique Mateen's name on YouTube. A phone number and post office box displayed on the show were traced back to the Mateen home in Florida. Mateen also owns a non-profit organization under the name Durand Jirga, which is registered in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

In one video, the elder Mateen expresses gratitude toward the Afghan Taliban, while denouncing the Pakistani government, the Post says.

“Our brothers in Waziristan, our warrior brothers in (the) Taliban movement and national Afghan Taliban are rising up,” he said.

The Post also released an interview with a woman who said she was Omar Mateen’s former wife and that he was a quiet but seething and increasingly unstable man who beat her regularly.

At first, the marriage was normal, but then he became abusive, the ex-spouse told the paper.

“He was not a stable person,” said the ex-wife, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety in the wake of the mass shooting. “He beat me. He would just come home and start beating me up because the laundry wasn’t finished or something like that.”

Mateen’s ex-wife said his family was from Afghanistan, but her former husband was born in New York. His family later moved to Florida. In 2007, Mateen graduated with an associate degree of science from Indian River State College.

In a series of MySpace photos, Mateen is seen taking selfies and wearing New York Police Department shirts in a couple of the shots. His ex-wife identified him as the man in the MySpace photos.

Mateen’s ex-wife said she was having a difficult time when she first met him and decided to move to Florida to be with him. The two married in March 2009 and moved into a two-bedroom condominium in Fort Pierce, Fla., that Mateen’s family owned.

“He seemed like a normal human being,” she said, adding that when they were married he wasn’t very religious. She said in the few months they were married, he owned a small-caliber handgun but gave no signs of having fallen under the sway of radical Islam.

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